Who We Are

SPARC is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education.

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SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) works to enable the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials in order to democratize access to knowledge, accelerate discovery, and increase the return on our investment in research and education. As a catalyst for action, SPARC focuses on collaborating with other stakeholders—including authors, publishers, libraries, students, funders, policymakers and the public—to build on the opportunities created by the Internet, promoting changes to both infrastructure and culture needed to make open the default for research and education.

The key to SPARC’s success is the commitment of our members to support and shape our initiatives. Our 200+ members are primarily academic and research libraries located in the U.S. and Canada, who use the resources and support provided by SPARC to actively promote Open Access to scholarly articles, the open sharing of research data, and the creation and adoption of Open Educational Resources on their campuses.

We deserve more than a read-only world.

SPARC works to create a world in which anyone can access, build upon, translate, and improve knowledge. Students should have access to their learning materials—and teachers should be able to update, improve, and customize resources with ease. Researchers should be able to read any article and its supporting data—and, without having to negotiate, they should be able to use text and data mining tools that have the potential to optimize their results.

Our close relationships with our international affiliate organizations SPARC Europe, SPARC Japan, and the newly launched SPARC Africa provides us with a truly global network of partners, representing more than 600 libraries and research institutions around the world.

SPARC places a premium on collaboration and collective action, and we work to advance our mission through the development and leadership of active coalitions. This collaborative approach provides us—and our members—with deep, working connections with major library, academic, student and and advocacy organizations throughout the world.

SPARC’s strategic priorities and action agenda are set with the guidance of our Steering Committee, elected by our members in accordance with the SPARC governance policies. Our programatic activities are also guided by four Member Advisory Groups, composed of representatives from SPARC member institutions. SPARC’s efforts are financed by member dues that support operating and program expenses. We are also fortunate to receive generous grant support from multiple foundations, allowing us to leverage our member dues to provide an even greater return for our member campuses.